TL;DR
- The Deal: AMD has agreed to acquire spatial intelligence startup World Labs in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $8.2 billion.
- Executive Leadership: World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to AMD CEO Lisa Su.
- Research Continuity: Co-founders Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue to lead the AI model research team alongside Li at AMD.
- Strategic Focus: World Labs develops spatial intelligence models that generate, rebuild, and simulate interactive 3D environments, providing model expertise to help shape AMD’s future computing roadmaps.
- Transaction Timeline: The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
Semiconductor designer AMD has reached an agreement to acquire World Labs, the artificial intelligence model startup led by pioneering computer scientist Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $8.2 billion. AMD announced the agreement on Monday, marking a substantial expansion of the chipmaker’s AI research footprint.
Following the completion of the acquisition, Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to AMD CEO Lisa Su. World Labs co-founders Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue leading the AI model research team alongside Li as part of AMD. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals, after which the World Labs team will continue its work on AI model research.
Addressing the strategic alignment between algorithm design and hardware development, Li highlighted the necessity of integrated compute infrastructure: “Without having a focused hardware effort, AI is hobbled in efficiency. And scale,” Li wrote in a post regarding the agreement.
Spatial Intelligence: What World Labs Builds
Headquartered in San Francisco, World Labs was founded at the start of 2024 by Li alongside Johnson and Mildenhall. The startup operates in the emerging field of “world models”—artificial intelligence systems designed to learn how the physical world works.
World Labs specializes in spatial intelligence models that generate, rebuild, and simulate interactive 3D environments from inputs such as text, images, and video feeds. In addition to 3D environment generation, the company develops technology specifically tailored for robot learning and physical simulation. Its core technologies include:
- Marble: A product that creates interactive 3D worlds from images, video, or text.
- Atlas: The company’s newest model, which Li noted predicts new camera views from 2D images.
- Robotics and Simulation Tools: Technologies enabling synthetic simulation environments for training robotic agents and physical systems.
Prior to establishing World Labs, Li earned international recognition for her foundational contributions to artificial intelligence. Her laboratory’s early work produced the ImageNet dataset, a milestone that catalyzed modern computer vision, and she previously served as the founding director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute.
In February 2026, World Labs raised $1 billion in external funding. That funding round included investment from both AMD and Nvidia, alongside Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity, and Sea.
Strategic Rationale: Why AMD Is Investing in World Models
The acquisition comes as artificial intelligence workloads undergo a structural transition. According to AMD, the AI sector is increasingly shifting into reasoning, robotics, simulation, and physical AI, generating new demands on computing performance and platform architectures.
AMD noted that World Labs’ model expertise will provide valuable insight into how AI workloads are evolving, helping AMD shape its future technology roadmaps and hardware platforms.
“Building the compute platforms for the next generation of AI requires a deep understanding of how models are evolving,” said AMD CEO Lisa Su.
The acquisition also cements an established partnership between the two companies. Li wrote that Su was an early investor in World Labs. The two organizations commenced a technical partnership last year, beginning with AI model training and inference workloads deployed on AMD GPUs.
Emphasizing the importance of moving AI beyond text processing, Li noted: “The universe isn’t made up of words; it’s made of real things.”
AMD’s Broader AI Expansion
The purchase of World Labs represents AMD’s latest major capital commitment aimed at strengthening its full-stack AI ecosystem.
In August, AMD acquired Taalas, a startup specializing in etching AI models directly into silicon to optimize inference. That transaction followed an announcement in July in which AMD stated it would invest $5 billion in AI research lab Anthropic.
By bringing World Labs’ spatial intelligence models and research leadership in-house, AMD positions itself to address the growing compute requirements of physical simulation, interactive 3D generation, and autonomous robotics.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the financial terms of AMD’s acquisition of World Labs?
AMD has agreed to acquire World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $8.2 billion.
What role will Fei-Fei Li assume at AMD?
Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to AMD CEO Lisa Su.
When is the transaction expected to close?
AMD expects the transaction to close by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.
What technologies does World Labs develop?
World Labs develops spatial intelligence models that generate, rebuild, and simulate interactive 3D environments from text, images, and video, as well as technology for robot learning and simulation. Its products include Marble, which creates 3D worlds, and Atlas, which predicts new camera views from 2D images.
Who will lead the World Labs research team after the deal closes?
World Labs co-founders Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall will continue leading the AI model research team alongside Fei-Fei Li at AMD.
Had AMD previously invested in World Labs?
Yes. AMD CEO Lisa Su was an early investor in World Labs, and AMD participated alongside Nvidia, Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity, and Sea in World Labs’ $1 billion funding round in February 2026. The two companies also established a technical partnership last year focusing on model training and inference on AMD GPUs.
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